The digital censorship in China case study

1. (a) Assume that you work as the senior vice president for international markets for Google. Your job is to prepare the company for its move into China. During negotiations with Chinese officials, you are given the following ultimatum: remove all links to webpages blocked by the Chinese government from search results. Otherwise, Google will be blocked and unavailable to Chinese citizens. China is a large new market for Google, so the consequences of being excluded from that market are quite serious. Also, competitors (like Yahoo) seem willing to play along with China. What would you recommend to Google's CEO about how to proceed? (b) What are the dangers involved in Google's current strategy?

2. Should companies like Cisco be concerned that their routers are being used to filter out sensitive content in countries like China? Are they complicit in China's censorship regime?

3. What is your moral assessment of the Chinese government's efforts to censor the Internet? In your view, do the Internet's free speech properties (embedded in its underlying code) slowly erode any government's ability to control online expression?